Your review reminds me of Johann Hari’s books, so I’m just gonna share my book review of his Chasing the Scream with you

Humble brag alert: if you are a teacher as gifted at connecting with students as I am, you gotta take the good with the bad. Which includes confessions that they are experimenting with drugs. (I can give you a lesson on what the controlled and non-controlled drugs in Singapore are.) . . I have an ex-student; his mother is imprisoned because of drugs. I still hang out with him because I don’t want him to become a statistic, to follow in her footsteps. He worries that his mum will relapse after her release next year. After reading this book, I wanna tell him that his love for his mum will carry her through. (He tattooed the Japanese characters for mum on his arm.) He is enough. . . In a similar vein, I learnt that just being there for at-risk students is enough. Being non-judgemental is enough. I relate most with the portion of the book that states the struggle some people have - they threaten to cut off their loved ones from their lives. This pierced my heart like a knife. Oh, I have said the exact same thing myself in an effort to convey how hurt I was to another ex-student. But little did I realise that such words will hurt him and make him close his spirit. I will not say such things again. . . @johann.hari makes a brilliant case that people who are addicted to drugs have deep-seated trauma issues and feel isolated. I want to ask, what about teenagers who aren’t necessarily experimenting with drugs as a form of escape but as a form of solidarity and fitting in within the group? I feel that the novelty of thrill seeking and power of peer pressure wasn’t quite explored in this book. And if one of these teenagers is my student, what can I do to bolster his immunity against such pressure? #whatareyoureadingsg #readingnationsg #igreads #igbooks #bookstagram #definitelybooks @definitelybooks #chasingthescream